A woman from Oreston won't get her dream wedding unless a bottle containing her boyfriend's marriage proposal finds its way to her.

Peter Downs discovered a bottle in his luggage during a ferry crossing with instructions from his partner Yvette Hargreaves to throw it into the English Channel to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Peter vowed that if the bottle was found he would propose to Yvette.

Peter Downs cast a message in a bottle into the English Channel for his long-term girlfriend Yvette Hargreaves. It washed up in Cherbourg two weeks later.

Now, having cast the bottle into the sea it has miraculously turned up in Cherbourg just two weeks later and Peter, owner of Boats and Outboards 4 Sale, has sent his own bottle back into the Channel with a marriage proposal attached.

"I regularly travel to France for work and unfortunately on the 17th, our anniversary, I was travelling which was unavoidable," Peter told The Herald.

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"I found Yvette's bottle in my bag with a separate note. I couldn't call her because I was in the middle of the Channel so I just did what she asked and didn't think anything else about it."

The note read 'Tossed into the sea to see how we can travel together.

'If found please share on Facebook... He might even marry me if this note gets found.'

Parisian Russ Blanc found the bottle a fortnight later on the coast of Cherbourg.

Having dried the message off, read it and translated it he was able to reach out to Yvette on Facebook.

"It was surreal," Peter said.

"I happened to be travelling through Cherbourg on my next trip out there so we arranged to meet and he drove an hour to get me this bottle back. He didn't speak any English, I didn't speak much French.

"He was really into the love story and he's offered us a place to stay in Paris for our honeymoon if we do get married. "

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True to his word, Peter has now proposed to Yvette, but with a twist - the proposal is written on another message in a bottle which he has thrown into the ocean.

"I've honoured my vow and proposed," Peter said.

'It left my hand at 19:45 (champions league KO - seemed appropriate) and was returned to the English Channel, midway between Cherbourg/Poole. Should this proposal reach Yvette, she will be able to answer the question.

Russ Blanc with his wife and Peter Downs

"Yvette has always wanted to get married. It wasn't really for me but my love for Yvette is and I'm committed to her.

"But she can't answer the question if she doesn't have bottle, so we might not get married until our 30th anniversary!"

Posting on Facebook, the couple are encouraging as many people to share the story as possible so the bottle can be tracked down.

'Please share this post, so the finder of the bottle can help complete my "fate",' Peter wrote.

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'He/she can contact us on the telephone number, address or social media names listed on the note, when found.

'I trust this bottle will return to Yvette, as it was also my "fate" that brought us together all those years ago, which has also forever returned us to each other over the years, throughout life's troubles and tests.

"It's this fate that will always keep us together come what may, because we will make that happen. That's our fate right there.'